Attractor: Claudia Westermann
More than 30 years ago, Michel de Certeau suggested that a shift in methodologies was necessary from strategies that operate on the basis of planning and prediction to tactics that operate on the basis of appropriation. Within this context, competition for the best prediction is substituted for a search for authorities that create the places that give space. This stream of interest with the title ‘Addressing the Future – The Tactics of Uncertainty’ suggests that even though Utopia has not been valued recently, it is nevertheless the actual turn towards the future – this radical uncertainty – that allows for a profound re-questioning of our methodologies. How do the sciences and the arts address the future? Can we speak to it, and in doing so, can we create openings in the present?
Methodology: The main intention of this suggested stream of interest is to provide for a ‘good’ start question from which the theme of uncertainty could be addressed in a rather radical way. I am interested in viewpoints from all areas of the sciences and arts. In addition to presentations, there could be conversational panels and workshops. The latter could also be contextualized within the city of Prague. Which inclination this theme takes also depends on the other streams of interest and should be discussed.
Biography: Claudia Westermann is a licensed architect holding a postgraduate degree in Architecture from the University of Karlsruhe (Dipl. Ing.), a second postgraduate degree in Media Fine Arts from the University of Art and Design (HfG) at the Center for Art and Media (ZKM) in Karlsruhe, Germany, and a PhD from the University of Plymouth, UK. Her Ph.D. thesis entitled ‘An Experimental Research into Inhabitable Theories’ was supervised by Professor Roy Ascott. Her works have been exhibited internationally, including at the Venice Biennale for Architecture, the Moscow International Film Festival, ISEA Symposium for the Electronic Arts, and the ZKM in Karlsruhe.
